Veteran actor tosses on director, producer hat for ‘Cold Brook’

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William Fichtner, right, greets Ali Afshar before Thursday night’s screening of Fichtner’s film, ‘Cold Brook.’ Fichtner starred in Afshar’s film,’American Wrestler: The Wizard,’ which screened earlier this year at the Empress Theatre in Vallejo with Afshar in attendance.
(RICH FREEDMAN–TIMES-HERALD)

William Fichtner has that familiar face, but perhaps an unfamiliar name. Basically, it’s the curse of the character actor, whose credits include “The Dark Knight,” “The Longest Yard,” “Quiz Show,” “Armageddon,” “The Perfect Storm” and “Black Hawk Down” among his nearly 90 films.

Oh, and he gets to play Allison Janney’s love interest in the current CBS sitcom, “Mom.”

But Fichtner, 61, took a different path with his latest film, “Cold Brooke,” unveiled at the Napa Valley Film Festival on Thursday night at the Uptown Theater. He co-stars, co-writes, co-produces and makes his narrative film directing debut.

Whew.

“I wear a lot of hats,” Fichtner understated, managing a brief “red carpet” interview before the 8:30 p.m. screening. Afterward, he took the stage with his co-writer Cain DeVore and six members of the cast in a Q-&-A with about 600 patrons looking on.

Fichtner said he approached Cain “with an idea I had for a story” about a two pals who play maintenance workers at a college who have a life-changing experience when a mysterious man from the past, played marvelously by Harold Perrineu, suddenly appears at the school’s museum.

Fichnter’s partner in crime was a simple pick — Kim Coates, whom he met on the set of “Black Hawk Down” in 2001 and became Fichtner’s real-life best friend. Slowly, the funding came in, plus other actors, and production crew, with Fichtner filming in or near his Buffalo, N.Y., hometown.

“It takes a long time to get the pieces, but it finally came together,” Fichtner said. “And we made the movie.”

Though it was Fichtner’s first shot at directing a narrative film, it’s not as if he went into it blindly, he said.

“At this point of my life, I’ve worked as an actor in more than 60 films. I’ve been around a little bit,” Fichtner said. “Producing this was 80 percent of my energy and directing 15 percent and I worked on co-writing it a long time.”

And the acting?

“I had no time for whatever my (acting) process is,” Fichtner said, laughing that when he wore is director’s hat, “I left myself (the actor) alone.”

“Cold Brook” was unveiled to the general public at the Woodstock Film Festival on Oct. 12 and Fichtner said he felt “relieved.”

“What I hoped would work, worked,” he said. “A lot of people are concerned about a lot of things when they make movies. Where does the rhythm go? When I saw it at Woodstock in front of 300 people, I thought, ‘OK, I think it works.'”

The 100-minute film “evolved and by the time we were ready to shoot, I felt, ‘We found it.’ The only big change was that I cut out the last scene six months ago and about two months ago put it back in,” Fichtner said. “I’m so happy I did. It’s one of those things where you felt like a little piece was missing so I brought it back.”

With so many responsibilities, “I felt like the whole thing was my baby,” Fichtner said. “And I wasn’t going to let it go. There was a lot of focus, a lot of attention. With all these massively talented people around, you make sure it’s the way you want it.”

Fichtner was last at the Napa Film Festival in 2016 as one of the stars in “American Wrestler: The Wizard.” The director, actor and subject of that film, Ali Afshar, surprised Fichtner before the Thursday night’s “Cold Brook” screening and was joined by “American Wrestler” director Alex Ranarivelo.

Fichtner said that the “American Wrestler” experience pushed Napa to “close to the top of the list” of festivals he hoped to land “Cold Brook.”

Afshar and “American Wrestler’s” young star, George Kosturos, appeared in Vallejo for that film’s screening this past September.

Though unable to make Thursday’s screening, Kosturos relayed via email that Fichtner “taught me everything I know about acting.”

“I love that kid so much,” Fichtner said. “Watching him blossom and embracing it. You’re either going to jump off a springboard or you’re not and he did and it showed up on the screen.”

Fichtner hoped he and his fellow actors accomplished the same with “Cold Blood,” claiming “it looks like a $20 million but it was made for nothing near that.”

“We ran out of money a long time ago, though we finished the movie only a month ago,” Fichtner said. “We made do with what we had.”

A key to the film — most films, really — is how the music sets the tone or mood for each scene. The cost of buying rights to a song was eye-opening for the first-time director.

“I wrote it to have a classic rock soundtrack,” Fichtner told the audience. “You have to win Powerball to afford a classic rock soundtrack.”

Fichtner discovered little known folk rock tunes “that opened up the doors” to the soundtrack he coordinated with music supervisor Michael Deragon.

And the story about the two maintenance working pals who are the only ones to see this man from the past and help him realize his quest?

“Made the whole thing up,” Fichtner said.

The third and final screening of “Cold Brook” at the Napa Valley Film Festival is this Sunday, 9:30 a.m., at Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena. For information, visit nvff.org.